Rob is a veteran firefighter who, since 2019, has been working to remediate his PTSD and share his journey in the hopes that it can help others. “PTSD and trauma causes changes in people, it causes a change in core beliefs, how they view themselves, others, and the world. […] For a good part of a decade, I was always a bit of a control freak, my trust in others really wasn’t there, I always had some slight side of anger all the time.”
A critical part of his recovery is understanding all that he can about the disorder and about himself. PTSD hits people differently depending on their personality, temperament, and experiences. In this way, the adage “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. […] If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Rob understands that the key to a successful recovery journey is to understand the disorder and how one reacts to it.
So for him, the key to combatting PTSD is understanding it and recognizing the signs early: “With PTSD, it’s not like you don’t have it today and you wake up tomorrow with it […] in my case, the PTSD is cumulative, as opposed to a single event. […] it wasn’t until the last couple of years where things really started progressing to the point of flashbacks and significant intrusive memories.”
The noticeable symptoms such as flashbacks can be preceded by years of lower-level, barely noticeable symptoms, sometimes for years. These symptoms are subtle but important to notice since they can cause familial and marital problems which can degrade relations and plunge the sufferer deeper into their disorder before they are ever diagnosed. “something that people don’t realize, is that PTSD really does affect the entire family.”
The message that Rob wants to drive home is that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for PTSD. It’s about gathering enough tricks and strategies that you can use to address any situation that you come across. An AED, for example, works for a heart attack but not a stroke.
Strategies that Rob likes to use are CBT and CPT, which, in his words “are really good at helping somebody deal with the cognitive distortions that sort of tend to infiltrate you when you have PTSD.” The key is to recognize the distortions for what they are and separate them out from your other thoughts. To win the battle, as it were, you need to be able to see what you are shooting at.
Flashbacks and painful memories are a different beast though and they need a different set of tools to deal with. For this, Rob describes EMDR as “the eighth wonder of the world” for its ability to take the pain out of a memory. “It doesn’t make the bad memories go away, but it helps the distress go away. One of my problematic calls I couldn’t even talk about without breaking down into an emotional wreck, but now I can talk about it. The memory’s still there, but the distress from that memory is gone.”
What drives Rob, and the reason that he is is working so hard to shed light on his battle and his lessons learned is the prospect that someone else, who is suffering in silence, might be able to pick up on what he’s saying, and use the knowledge to start their journey to recovery.
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